Encouragement is defined as “the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.” But if you look at the root of the word, you see “courage” inside it. Basically, when we encourage people, we give them courage.
Many people in our country need courage, because many people are being threatened. Election workers (Reuters), school boards (CBS News), health workers (NBC News), and activists. Now, activists are probably used to being threatened, but the others are not accustomed to it and need whatever moral courage — and literal help — we can give them.
I think these attacks are often coordinated. The Utah school board was harassed by people outside of its district:
In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for Granite School District said "because many of the individuals were not associated with the district as patrons or residents, there was an extended amount of time needed to identify the perpetrators as part of this investigation."
The perps were coordinated and then descended on the School District.
Because the country is so vast, we often can’t know where the next attack will come. So, we need to fortify everyone who might be subject to these attacks, to help them stand up to these bullies. One way to help them do that is to thank them for the work they are doing. How can we do this? Here are some ideas:
- Personal thanks to individuals: cards, emails, messages, alerting their bosses
- Public thanks in the form of letters to the editor or tweets or other social media
- Public thanks in the form of freeway blogging (that means putting up signs where people can see them)
- Support with money and votes if they are in positions where they need money and/or votes
If you have more ideas, please include them below!
Who needs to be thanked and encouraged? Here are some ideas:
- Election workers, both elected and not
- Your representatives
- The police when they do their jobs well
- Teachers and school boards
- Front-line workers, especially when they are doing things well
- Health care workers
If you have more ideas, please include them below!
Here’s an example of celebrating the health care workers:
Of course, responding to actual attacks depends on the nature of the attack. If you have ideas about that, too, please include below.
Your assignment — should you choose to accept it 😄, is to come up with three groups/individuals who have done well during this last period of US life — and to let them know how much you appreciate what they have done.
Thanks so much!
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and the sequel, Scavengers of Mind. (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also on sale at Kindle this week, and also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here.